Paperlinx went into administration in April 2015, when almost 700 employees were immediately laid off. One of the complicating factors has been the fact that the administration involved multiple companies within the overarching group, including Robert Horne, The Paper Company and Howard Smith.

Former workers have expressed their exasperation at the protracted process. In its final report to creditors at the beginning of April, Deloitte said it expected preferential creditors (which includes employee wage arrears and holiday pay) to be paid within the next six months. Deloitte has been paid more than £3.7m in fees for handling the Paperlinx administration.

“It’s very frustrating as we confirmed who we worked for, where we worked, and our job roles around 10 months ago,” one worker told PrintWeek. "We all got a letter a couple of months back indicating the claim we made for holidays, arrears of wages, etc would be paid out for the preferential creditors 'no later than 1 December'."

Howard Smith employees were notified of their payments last week, with The Paper Company payments to follow and Robert Horne payouts by mid-December.

More than 400 former employees of Paperlinx are also pursuing a Protective Award claim against the business, for failing to consult prior to making 20 or more employees redundant.

This too has been complicated by Paperlinx’s multiple-company and multi-branch structure.

“Some sites that had a number of people and thought they had enough numbers – over 20 – to make a claim had in fact got people working for Robert Horne, The Paper Co and Howard Smith, which meant they weren’t able to submit a valid claim,” explained former Howard Smith sales manager Pete Jackson, who collated the names and coordinated the process of fighting for the Protective Award claim. 

Following a lengthy preliminary hearing at the end of last month, Morrish, the solicitors dealing with the Protective Award claim, has now written to employees with details of what happens next. A series of dates have been agreed by all of the involved parties to thrash out all the outstanding issues, followed by a seven-day preliminary hearing at Huntingdon Employment Tribunal on 27 March 2017, and culminating in a full hearing to finally decide on the Protective Award, which is scheduled to begin on 30 May – more than two years after the company collapsed.

“We feel like we’re at the bottom of the pile. We thought we were in it for the long haul, but now might not see the light of day until the back end of 2017,” Jackson added.

Deloitte has not commented.